DESERT ECONOMY

The prosperity of the tribe is measured by the number
and condition of its camels. The sources of wealth are good
pastures and the manly prowess of its members who will
aggressively acquire fresh camels at their enemies' expense.

Camels therefore fall into two classes, herds of milch
camels (the assets and reserve) and the less numerous riding
camels (working capital). The first may be worth one
hundred dollars each, the second from two hundred to four
hundred for an exceptional animaL The milch camel never
knows a saddle, and is raised solely for breeding and to
produce milk and wool. The female is therefore the valued
sex, and the cow calf is always reared, whereas the bull calf
is a luxury not worth his keep. In consequence he seldom
survives the first year of life, and not infrequently is
slaughtered for food on the day he is born without his
mother seeing him. Normally two or three bulls will serve
a herd of fifty cows; they also carry tents and the heavier
burdens when on the move. Herds when wandering off to
remote inaccessible regions split up over wide areas, each
Badu family looking after its own; but the tribe will collect
again for self-protection against the raiders of the steppe,
whenever the need of grazing draws them southward into
danger, as last winter.

The tribes strongest in camels are the Murra, Manasir
and Manahil, also, to some extent, the Sa'ar. The Rashid
have of late years decayed from the depredations of the
Sa'ar, so that to-day a Rashidi with five camels is com-
paratively well off, with twenty he is rich, and one hundred
is the limit of affluence; with the Murra averages are much
higher. My envious Rashidi informant in emphasising their
wealth, with a simile familiar to us of the West through the
Old Testament, picked up a handful of sand and allowed

[267]